Comments on: Will Ad Targeting Lead to a Lesson in Moderation?

By: Nilesh Trivedi

Nilesh Trivedi — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:30:34 +0000

It does seem to me a semantic issue.

Targeting means to me, efficiently and effectively reaching users of a particular profile.

It is up to the marketers to define that profile broadly or strictly as the situation (competitive scenario, budget etc.) demands.

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:58:43 +0000

I’ve seen those mechanisms (iTunes has a similar one for recommendations) but it’s never occurred to me to actually take the time to click on one. Any system where we’re asking customers to do work in order to receive more advertising strikes me as a bad way to go.

By: Kristen Fisher Ratan

Kristen Fisher Ratan — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:05:57 +0000

Actually, Amazon does offer a solution to the gift issue, but it’s cumbersome for the user. You can affect the recommendations you receive by deleting items they use in the algorithm. David can tell Amazon to ignore the disc in its calculations. You have to do this one by one, though, and most people probably don’t bother.

By: Rich Dodenhoff

Rich Dodenhoff — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:09:51 +0000

Wonderful example, Kent! I’m lefthanded, but I have never bought anything designed for lefthanded people. Nonetheless, I have a large assortment of lefty-oriented objects (including scissors) given to me by friends and relatives. One of the frustrating aspects of online purchasing is the often resulting deluge of direct mail email that follows. It can be sufficiently annoying to produce a negative impression of the company and prevent future sales.

By: Philip Davis

Philip Davis — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:01:22 +0000

One other benefit of mass advertisement over targeted selling is that many purchases are impulsive. The purchaser did not have a premotivated goal of buying the item, but somehow got convinced (or persuaded) that he had to have one.

Targeting ads based on previous purchasing history implies that history is a good predictor of future habits. Without any other knowledge of who David Crotty is and the purpose of his last transaction, trying to sell him another Blu-Ray disc is the best Amazon could do. Not very effective, but probably a better bet than trying to sell him a pair of fuzzy slippers or a naugahyde barcalounger.

By: Ryan Jones

Ryan Jones — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:05:20 +0000

Well reasoned post!

If I were to put words in your mouth, I’d say you’re not arguing against targeting as much as warning against picking the wrong the packaging and pricing.

There are more choices than ever before. This is not only because of the ability to “slice smaller,” as you point out, but because of new forms of media and pricing brought about by a maturing online ad market. Now marketers can choose any combination of:
1) Audience: Broad or narrow
2) Pricing model: CPM, CPC, CPA, others
3) Context: Brand-centric, content-centric, others

Just in that list of three there are… 24 permutations! And THEN you have to feel like you’re getting the right value for the money.

So again, I don’t think that targeting is the enemy, it’s choosing the right package across those variables.

Ryan Jones
President
http://www.pubget.com

By: Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:54:23 +0000

Kevin, I agree — in moderation, targeting can be effective. My guess is that the tenacity with which some people are pursuing targeting will abate soon, as reality sets in. I also think there’s a temptation to call online DM “advertising” when its goals and tactics are much more akin to direct marketing.

I often think billboard advertising can be pretty effective, but targeting I-90 can’t be that subtle!

By: Kevin Cohn

Kevin Cohn — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:08:08 +0000

There’s a lot of truth here, although I think it has less to do with targeting than to do with advertising in general. For example, creatives becoming too familiar and uninteresting is not a failure of targeting–it’s a failure of advertisers to be creative.

Certainly there are cases in which blanketing a delivery channel with a message, regardless of whether or not it’s relevant to the majority of customers of that channel, is better than targeting, but I think these situations are few and far between.

Effective targeting is able to respond to changes in customer needs and product offerings. This happens in the information industry (new content is published regularly), but not so much in your example, where handedness is not likely to change.

So while I agree with you that targeting is not without its flaws (like any strategy or tactic, in the wrong hands it is either useless or detrimental to the bottom line), in moderation it’s very powerful. For evidence of this, just look to Google.

Kevin Cohn
Director of Product Management
Atypon

By: Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:57:52 +0000

Amazon's analytics and matching algorithms are overrated, I think. They need to redevelop them. For instance, their rankings on books don't consolidate e-books with print books, and for print books, they don't consolidate books sold directly by Amazon with those sold through Amazon sellers. And the gifting problem has been around since Day 1 for them. You would think they'd spend some time and $$ to straighten these things out. Netflix is doing a better job, and approaching it smartly.

By: David Crotty

David Crotty — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:32:10 +0000

Amazon’s been driving me crazy lately with their “targeted” marketing based on the gifts I bought for others this holiday season. Though I don’t own a Blu-Ray player, I sent a disc to a relative, and now Amazon seems to think I want daily e-mails about specials on Blu-Ray discs. Isn’t Amazon supposed to be a real leader in this market? You’d think they could differentiate between items sent to others and to oneself.